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‘‘Anyone who has loved a childhood pet knows that we turn to them for companionship and disclosure, just like relationships between people,” said Matt Cassells, lead author and Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Psychiatry. “We wanted to know how strong these relationships are with pets relative to other close family ties."

The UK-based University of Cambridge study was done in collaboration with the WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Researchers questioned 12-year-old children from 77 different families that owned one or more pets of any kind. Each family had at least two children.

The subjects reported feeling stronger bonds with their pets in relation to their siblings, with lower instances of conflict or stress. Young females experienced more "nuanced" relationships with animals, and even shared private information or secrets with them.

“While previous research has often found that boys report stronger relationships with their pets than girls do, we actually found the opposite," Cassels said. "While boys and girls were equally satisfied with their pets, girls reported more disclosure, companionship, and conflict with their pet than did boys."